EMI MIZUKAMI

Emi Mizukami creates paintings that exist as an accumulation of temporal actions. Filling her canvases with imagery derived from old and contemporary mythologies and folklores from around the world, as well as historical fables and tragedies, the artist repeatedly paints new images over them, covering each layer with pigments mixed with sand. The multi-layered paintings born from this approach do not offer a static viewing experience to the human retina, but rather evoke various imaginations, such as the passage of time in ways unbeknownst to man, reality, and virtuality.

The artist has provided the following statement for the exhibition:　

In this world in which the dizzying cycle of loss and creation continues unceasingly, today morphs into yesterday. I sometimes find myself filled with renewed inspiration and empathy by tanka poems that were written by unknown authors a thousand years ago, and wonder about the ages that have passed since then.

In my paintings, I combine narrative fragments from sources such as myths, literature, fables, and diagrams that have been passed down to us by others. These vestiges passed down by others are recreated as images through me, an individual living in the present day incorporating the modest insights that I have gained, such as the right angle to position my arm in and proper speed to use in order to paint a pleasing line, the appropriate viscosity of paint to use, and my preference for the deep dark color obtained by mixing brown and ultramarine.

I sometimes produce new images on the canvas by painting over existing images. The images that are no longer visible on the surface continue to exist silently inside the final painting. While the minute unevenness measuring less than one millimeter appears to have disappeared visually, it continues to exist as a subtle wavering hidden deep within the still surface of the canvas.

Standing between the contrary processes of loss (becoming invisible) and creation (becoming visible), I attempt to connect the two through the act of painting, without unequivocally reverting to either.

Mizukami renders invisible both grand and modest human tales that have been spun throughout various times and regions by first portraying them on the canvas, and then painting over them. The artist explains that this conveys how people have reconciled and come to terms with loss and the absurdities and mysteries of life. Throughout history, humans have exerted their creativity—at times modestly, and at other times in significant ways—while suffering the vicissitudes of fate. A vast number of these stories may eventually move into the realm of the invisible, having dropped out of the cultural archive due to selection throughout the ages. Mizukami finds beauty in the fact that they have appeared in the world at one time as representations, even if only momentarily, and sublimates them in her paintings. This show will present about 17 new paintings.